Coffee, tea and other types of beverage presses are known in the art. A typical beverage press may include some type of container or vessel and a complementary shaped plunger having a strainer formed on one end. The plunger shaft is typically provided through a removable lid and has an exterior-side knob or handle to assist a user in moving the plunger up and down.
In use, coffee grounds, tea leaves (in whole or part) or other beverage brewing materials (generally referred to herein as “fines”) are placed in the vessel. A liquid, usually hot, but not necessarily, is then poured into the vessel and let brew or seep for a desired amount of time. After the brew period, the plunger is moved in the appropriate manner, usually pushed downward, to cause the strainer to separate the fines from the infused liquid. The infused liquid, now substantially free of fines, is ready for consumption.
Various beverage presses, such as “French presses,” have been known since at least the 19th century. More recent trends in beverage presses include fabrication for portability and reducing size to accommodate single servings. While various beverage presses are known in the art, they are generally disadvantageous for one or more of the following reasons.
Presses typically include a seal that is moved up and down during use and conforms to the interior shape of the press vessel. It is necessary for the seal to very tightly conform to the interior shape of the vessel so that fines are blocked by the seal from passing into the drinkable beverage. To achieve this, the interior walls of a press vessel are straight in the vertical dimension and the seal is made of a fixed size that is complementary to the interior cross-sectional shape of the vessel (in the horizontal plane), in snug contact with the walls.
The fixed size seal and straight wall container arrangement of the prior art is disadvantageous, among other reasons, in that it limits the variety of shapes and sizes in which press vessels may be made—both for functional and aesthetic reasons. It also limits the number and type of vessels with which a given plunger may be used. A need thus exists for a beverage press that may be made in other than a straight sided and/or vertically sided configuration. A need also exists for a plunger arrangement that can be used effectively in vessels of different shapes and size.
The fixed size seal and straight wall arrangement of the prior art is also disadvantageous because, for example, if the vessel is bent or broken, a user must find a container of exactly the same size to have a functional press. If the particular press product line has been discontinued or is no longer available commercially, the plunger and other press parts are useless (they do not achieve a sufficiently tight seal with an alternate vessel), and a user must purchase an entirely new press—an expensive and undesirably consumptive use of resources.
Another disadvantageous aspect of prior art beverage presses relates to brew or seep control. Once pressed, i.e., once the plunger has been pushed into the position that separates the fines from the infused liquid, there is still contact through the strainer between the fines and the liquid. This contact leads to continued diffusion of coffee, tea or other particles into the beverage, and thereby potential over-brewing. A need exists for reducing brewing action in a press when a desired state of brewing has been or has nearly been reached.
Yet another disadvantageous aspect of prior art beverage presses is that they tend to have lids that completely seal or block access to the interior of the vessel. If a user wants to add milk, sweetener, flavor, nutritional supplements or other substances, the user must remove the lid which in turn moves the plunger and stirs up fines previously filtered out by the plunger. A need exists for a lid configuration that permits adding substances to the liquid inside a beverage press vessel without disturbing the fines, plunger and/or lid position, etc.